Saucisse Créole au Massalé
Fresh Mauritian sausage scented with massalé, a blend of Indo-Tamil spices proper to the island, distinct from Indian garam masala and Sri Lankan curry powder.
| Lean pork (or chicken for halal versions) | 700 g |
| Pork fat (or solidified coconut oil for chicken) | 300 g |
| Mauritian massalé (see composition below) | 25 g |
| Red onion, finely chopped | 80 g |
| Fresh garlic, crushed | 20 g |
| Fresh ginger, grated | 15 g |
| Fresh red bird’s-eye chilli, deseeded and chopped | 2 |
| Fresh curry leaves (kadipatta) | 10 leaves |
| Fresh coriander, chopped | 20 g |
| White vinegar | 25 ml |
| Fine salt | 18 g |
| Hog casing (Ø 28–32 mm) | — |
| — Composition of Mauritian massalé: | — |
| Coriander seeds (toasted) | 40 % |
| Cumin (toasted) | 20 % |
| Fenugreek | 10 % |
| Dried red chilli | 10 % |
| Turmeric | 10 % |
| Cinnamon, clove, cardamom | 10 % |
- Preparing the massalé (if home-made): Toast the coriander seeds and the cumin separately in a dry pan over medium heat until lightly coloured. Cool. Blend with all the other spices to a fine powder. This home-made massalé, of incomparable freshness, will be superior to any commercial version.
- Preparing the meats: Cut the pork into cubes. Refrigerate at 0 °C for 2 hours. Mince through the 5-6 mm plate.
- Aromatic preparation: Fry the onion in a little oil until lightly coloured. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli, and curry leaves. Cook for 2 minutes. Leave to cool completely.
- Mixing: Combine the meat, the cold aromatic base, the massalé, the fresh coriander, the vinegar and the salt. Knead for 5 minutes. Check the taste.
- Resting: Refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours. The massalé needs time to fully express itself.
- Stuffing: Stuff into the casings. Form sausages of 10 to 12 cm or a continuous chain.
- Cooking: Grill over a lively fire or fry in a little oil for 12 to 15 minutes, turning regularly. Serve with dholl puri (a thin flatbread) and coriander-mint chutney or red-chilli sauce.
To understand this sausage, one must go back to 1835, the date of the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, and to the years that followed, when hundreds of thousands of workers arrived in Mauritius from Bihar, Madras and other regions of India. These indentured workers brought their spices and their art of the massalé. The stuffing technique, for its part, goes back to the French and then the British presence. It was from the meeting of these two traditions that the massalé sausage was born.
The Mauritian massalé differs from all the other spice blends of the region. It is neither Indian garam masala nor Sri Lankan curry powder. It is a local creation, born of the mingling of Tamil, Bihari and Gujarati traditions in an island context. Its use in charcuterie is a properly Mauritian innovation: in India, the massalé scents simmered meats, but not sausages. It was in Mauritius that the spiced forcemeat was first stuffed into a casing.
The aromatic base (onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, curry leaves) is fried in oil, then cooled before being worked into the cold forcemeat. This pre-cooking stabilises the aromas. A rest of twelve to twenty-four hours lets the fenugreek express its bitter profile and its caramel side. A chicken version developed within the Muslim and Hindu communities, allowing the massalé sausage to cross communal frontiers.
It is sold on the markets of Port-Louis, Curepipe and Quatre-Bornes, served in dholl puri (split-pea flatbreads) with coriander chutney. Its consumption cuts across the communities and the social classes.
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